Brown And Copper Skittle Manicure - 14 June 2015

Finally, after over a week of major ups and bigger downs in our home and in our lives, here is my latest skittle manicure.  I used five different brown and/or copper colours, and I am amazed at how well they went together.  Here are the products I used:

Now to some photos of my manicure, taken in artificial light at BigW and outside, but with light cloud cover, and just a touch of sunshine.

  

                      Under Artificial Light at BigW                                   Outside In Shade

Outside Under Light Cloud

I started with one coat of Pretty Serious "Rock On" Strengthener on all my nails, and a second coat on a couple that are still very thin and fragile.  Then I put one coat of OPI Natural Nail Base Coat on them all.

On my pinky fingers I used Model's Prefer "Double Shot" creme polish, which looks like a really dark brown in the bottle, but with two coats on my pinky nails it looks black, so I was a bit disappointed, because I wanted it to be brown to fit with the rest of the colours I used. However, it was very easy to work with, and I had excellent coverage with two coats.

On my ring fingers I used Grace-full Nail Polish "And My Axe", which is a dark red-brown jelly packed with holo, silver, gold, copper and bronze glitter.  In real life, just looking at it on my hands, I seemed to have full coverage with just two coats but, thanks to my hubby buying me a smart phone with such good photographic ability, I realise now that I should have added another coat, and perhaps done a bit of dabbing.  Like all my Grace-full Nail Polish, it looks amazing under any lighting, but especially under artificial light and in the sun.  Unfortunately it was cloudy yesterday, so it was very hard to get any photos in full sunlight.  That's the problem with living in Tasmania in winter.  Unfortunately this polish is no longer available, but there are heaps of other wonderful polishes available.

On my middle fingers I used Pretty Serious Cosmetics "Seasonal Sunset", a rusty, jelly-base colour packed with gold and copper glitter. In real life it is a real glitter bomb, and it was so hard to get a a photo that did it justice.  It goes on like a dream, and I only needed two coats to get fantastic coverage.  I probably could have had enough cover with just one good coat, but I wanted it to look good for the swatch, so I gave it the extra coat. This polish is also no longer available, and was a gift from a dear friend who knew that I wanted a bottle of it and that I hadn't known about Pretty Serious Cosmetics when this colour was available.  Thank you, Therese.  I absolutely love it!

On my index fingers I used Shades of Phoenix "Fred's Courage" from the Shades of Potter Collection, which is a burnt orange, autumn-leaf coloured polish.  It went on really smoothly, with full cover in two coats, but when I put the top coat on it bubbled, and got worse overnight.  I was so disappointed, because the colour is amazing, and I was so looking forward to using it.  I will definitely use it again with a different top coat.  The Shades of Potter Collection is wonderful, and I can't wait to try the other colours in the collection.

Finally, on my thumbs I used one of the new Ulta3 Autumn/Winter Metallic Collection polishes, "from the mine", which is a gorgeous copper, metallic glitter bomb with a textured finish.  I also added just one coat of this polish to my pinky fingers to try and take some of the starkness off the colour on them. I don't normally like rough finishes, but with just one coat of top coat this was not so rough that it catches on things, and I love it. All this collection is beautiful, and I just had to give this one a try.  If you haven't tried these polishes yet, get to your nearest Terry White Pharmacy and find them as soon as you can.  There are five in the set, and every single one of them is just gorgeous. 

I finished off with one coat of OPI Natural Nail Top Coat, which gave everything a lovely glossy finish.  However, as I mentioned earlier, it made the polish on my index fingers bubble, but not any of the other polishes.

So, there you have it for this post.  I'm really pleased with how the colour combination worked out and my nails are growing once again, although they still have a long way to go, thanks to both the Pretty Serious Nail Care treatments I am using, "Rock On Nail Strengthener" and "Cuticle Hero Super Hydrating Cuticle Oil".  They are really great, and I'm so glad that I discovered them, and was blessed with some items from this range by a lovely friend of mine.  Thanks, Chris, you know who you are.

I'll be back again soon to show you my birthday present stash from my hubby, and a couple of other great finds.  Thanks for visiting, and I hope you'll come back soon to see what I have to share with you.

Have a great week, and God bless you!

Hugs

Christine

(Please check out my other blog below, too.)

Words of Life and Hope
http://wordsoflifeandhope.blogspot.com.au/

burnt orange Autumn leaf coloured polish.

An Amazing Gift from a Very Dear Friend!!! 5th June, 2015

I have to let you know that my faith in humanity has been partially restored, and it's so nice to know that there are beautiful people out there still who care about others, and who are willing to show they care.  I received an amazing gift package from a friend, who I've only met recently, and I can't believe how generous she has been.  Thank you so much, Therese, from the bottom of my heart!  You are one very special person, and there should be more people like you in the world.  If there was, the world wouldn't be the hell hole it is today.  Here is a picture of the items Therese sent me, with more details of the polish and other items below.

 

As you can see, this stash is amazing.  There is a beautiful card with a lovely message, two awesome bottles of Pretty Serious Nail Polish, "Seasonal Sunset" and "Generally Dangerous"; two lots of striping tape (gold and hot pink); two water transfer decals which look like postage stamps (unfortunately I didn't think to take them out of the package so I could show both of them) - one shows famous European landmarks, and the other one has the word "SHOES" written all over it in different sizes and fonts; two black acrylic bow decals with holographic glitter on them; two pretty, multi-coloured, bow decals with diamantes in the middle of the bows; two silver butterfly decals with holographic rhinestones all over the wings; two gold butterfly decals with pink, yellow and holographic rhinestones on their wings; one sheet of purple floral transfer decals; and one sheet of pretty blue, yellow and white flower sticker decals. 

Here is a photo of the two Pretty Serious nail polishes:

It was extremely hard to get a good picture of "Seasonal Sunset", but it is a dark burnt-orange jelly base that leans a little towards brown, with tons of gold and orange glitter in it.  It is definitely my kind of colour - in fact, I'm starting to fall in love with browns and oranges, especially with glitter and shimmer in them.  The other polish, "Generally Hazardous", fits the bill completely, and is a wonderful orange creme with a really gorgeous golden shimmer through it.  I can't wait to try this on my nails, and I think these two polishes will go together really well in a skittlette manicure, so I might give that a try one day soon.

Overall, this beautiful gift completely blew me away.  I didn't think that people like Therese, and Christine, another friend that sent me a beautiful care package of Pretty Serious products that I shared with you recently, still existed.  I know the nail art community are extremely helpful and encouraging, but this takes that to another level, and is unbelievably kind and generous.  Thank you both for making me realise that there ARE some beautiful people left in the world.

Well, that's enough for this post.  We have been dealing with a few disasters this week, and I am physically, emotionally and mentally exhausted.  I'll post some more news very soon once I've taken some photos of some new nail mail, and also the details of an amazing, humongous prize I won yesterday.  I'll take photos when it arrives and do a post then. Will be doing another manicure this weekend, too, so will have that to show you as well.

Thanks for visiting, and I hope you'll come back soon to see what I have to share with you.  Don't forget to sign up to receive emails when I have a new post, and please leave comments, even if they are complaints, so that I can continue to improve my blogging.

God bless you, and have a wonderful day!

Hugs

Christine

(Please check out my other blog below, too.)

Words of Life and Hope
http://wordsoflifeandhope.blogspot.com.au/